1.10.2007

Random Seven

1. I need to add more books to my list. I got a lot of great recommendations, and then I also heard a fascinating interview with Chris Adrian, the author of The Children's Hospital. I can almost taste the words I want to read it so badly.

2. I had the unusual experience of eating at HomeTown Buffet not once but twice yesterday. In between, I had my second meeting for spiritual direction. When I imagined my life as a pastor, I never realized how often cholesterol and fluorescent lights would sandwich the Holy Spirit. Though it should be noted that there was just as much abundant Holy Spirit action at my various HTB meals as there was in my spiritual direction meeting. She's good that way.

3. I also watched an erhu performance yesterday. You cannot call this vocation boring.

4. We got tickets to see Ron Sexsmith at the Troubador. I am delighted. As much as I love Over the Rhine and would go (and have gone) to great lengths to see them, I have seen them nine times. And I've seen the other members of my music trinity precisely zero times. So I'm superbly psyched that R.S. is coming all the way from Canada just for me. If the Innocence Mission ever tours again, I'll be doing cartwheels. Oh, and it so totally pays to like the obscure artists; the tickets were a whopping $15 each.

5. A friend from high school contacted me today. We had lost touch, but he was one of my favorite people to hang out with back in the day. One of my favorite Phil moments happened after we had attended a very postmodern performance of some Greek tragedy at the University of Akron. My Mama picked us up (as we were apparently old enough to watch strange productions of Oedipus, but not old enough to drive) and Phil said something to the effect of how he felt like we needed an outing to a monster truck ralley after that business.

6. My passport came today. I've been rather anxious about it. We hadn't realized when we planned our trip that my passport had been rendered void by our nuptials. Even when I got the official-looking envelope today, I was convinced they were going to tell me that I was disqualified for a new passport. I'd even conjured the many reasons I'd be nixed, everything from the common confusion about my many names, to abject fear that the fellow who married us might have forgotten to send the license into the courthouse. But all is well, except that I now look seven years older in my passport picture.

7. If you couldn't tell from my blogging spree, Ben was out of town last week. The combination of his absence and my illness equated to many hours spent on the couch feeling sorry for myself. So I am very, very happy that he is back, and that I am better. (Incidentally, the [hilarious] post about a previous homecoming of Ben's had to be closed to further comment, on account of a unmanageable amount of comment spam.)